Photograph by: Debra Brash
, Victoria Times Colonist

Canadians are looking like deadbeats when it comes to the last outpost of eco-consciousness -- the green burial.

Elsewhere, folks are opting for biodegradable coffins, saying no to embalming and choosing woodsy, pesticide-free cemeteries like there's no tomorrow.

In Great Britain, where the green burial movement was born in the early 1990s, more than 200 green cemeteries operate. The United States, meanwhile, boasts almost 20 cemeteries either in operation or under development; they include the 140-hectare Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve in Florida, which combines a green cemetery and conservation area.

Here at home we have, by all accounts, nine people buried in officially green cemeteries. They're all in the one-eighth of a hectare dedicated to green burials at Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria, B.C.

There are others, including Cobourg Union Cemetery in Ontario, planning or about to open small green burial sections. Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Lower Sackville, N.S., dedicated 100 plots for green burials last June, but so far only one person, still living, has signed up.

"Some (traditional) cemeteries will put you in the simplest box and drop you in a hole," says Art Read, executive secretary of the Funeral Information Society of Ottawa. Others have switched to natural ground cover instead of manicured lawns or made similar halfway moves. Lack of awareness and old-fashioned Canuck conservatism seems to be the reasons Canadians have been left in the dust, so to speak, when it comes to our final send-off.

The idea is simplicity itself: The body is a natural thing, so why not let it decompose naturally? We did for millennia, and orthodox Jews, among others, still eschew modern funeral trappings.

Death, however, has become an industry and one that's ravenous for resources. In U.S. cemeteries alone, some 90,000 tons of steel, copper and brass, 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid lie buried in caskets, vaults and corpses.

Not to mention the energy consumed in cremating a body at temperatures of more than 900 C or the dioxin and other gases spewed into the atmosphere in the process.

By contrast, green burial uses either shrouds or fully biodegradable coffins made of materials like bamboo, cardboard or quick-to-replenish wood, such as poplar, instead of caskets built from slow-growing hardwood festooned with brass. Embalming, if it's used at all, relies on non-toxic fluids rather than formaldehyde, a potentially cancer-causing agent that critics say leaks into the soil.

There are no grave liners, no concrete vaults. Headstones -- faulted for the energy consumed during their production and transportation -- have been replaced by indigenous rocks or native plants. And pesticides are definitely off-limits in green cemeteries.

"It's using burial to support a natural eco-system," says Mike Salisbury, Guelph-based president of the Natural Burial Co-operative. "It's using the funeral process for the larger community good and as a conservation tool."

Salisbury believes it will be five to 10 years before green burial takes off in Canada.

Ottawa Citizen

SIX WAYS TO HAVE A GREEN BURIAL

1. Choose a locally sourced, all-wood casket without metal hardware, finished in natural oil and with a natural, biodegradable interior and bedding. A biodegradable shroud inside a cardboard coffin is an alternative.

2. Ask for non-toxic, organic embalming fluid, or insist on none at all (this may limit the viewing period because embalming slows decomposition).

3. Donate your organs.

4. Insist on no concrete vault or grave liner. Ask about using an indigenous rock or planting a shrub as a marker.

5. For cremation, ask that your dental fillings be removed to prevent mercury from entering the atmosphere.

6. Request a donation to a land conservation organization instead of flowers.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.